The beauty of the tape echo unit, known in some recording circles as original-gangsta delay, is just as much mechanical as it is auditory. A simple loop of tape passes play and record heads. Put gain knobs and signal bridges as controls on those heads, put speed control on the tape drive and you have a self-contained wonderland of reverb, delay and overload possibilities. Where many digital delay pedals trade off fidelity for signal flexibility, the classic tape design does no such thing. Let's put it this way: nobody ever confused the sound of a Roland Space Echo with a Behringer DD100 Delay pedal.

These and other reasons are why it's newsworthy that a company named Blue Coconut are rolling out (allegedly in October of this year) the Echoverb, a return to the designs of yesteryear. According to the outstanding blog Future Music, the Echoverb's design is courtesy of an OG designer, Terry MacDonald.

MacDonald spent two years of research and development, leveraging his experience with the Watkins/WEM company which built tape echo units in the 60’s to develop a totally new design, rather than a copy. His goal was to eliminate all the problems associated with early tape echo machines, improving the performance, whilst retaining the unique analog tape echo sound which has never quite been captured with digital hardware or software based plug-ins. A couple of the improvements include extremely low noise circuitry and the ability to select any combination of 6 available heads. Also, a precision custom made fly wheel ensures no noticeable pitch deviation (WOW and Flutter), compared to that of the old tape echo device.

For the musician, the front panel has hi/low gain jack inputs for instruments along with a separate jack insert and return for guitar pedals, and an echo on/off jack footswitch. On the rear of the unit, line level transformer balanced XLR’s are provided for professional studio applications. Front panel controls include input gain, echo level, variable speed, sustain, and output levels along with tone/EQ and echo bypass. An optional aluminium and Perspex head guard is available separately and a sliding rack mount tray with built in storage compartment for tape loops, head cleaner etc.

Unity Audio Ltd are involved in this project as the exclusive distributors for the Echoverb and have formed a new company, Blue Coconut Unity, to develop and market additional products.

Blue Coconut’s Echoverb will be shipping at the end of October for a retail price of £1600.